Twenty years ago (1991), I lived through another turmoil — the collapse of the Soviet Union. I was on the cusp between childhood and adolescence then. What followed was impossibly hard for many (abject poverty for millions, lawlessness, breakdown of an established economic system, overnight collapse of the worldview and belief system of several generations) but in the end it was for the good.

People say there is a Chinese curse, “May you live in times of change and upheaval (or possibly interesting times).” I pray that 2011 would not be the time of damnation for the Egyptian people but the beginning of the change for the better.